Tag Archives: New York Beauty

The last page in our fabric journal had a theme which was a difficult one for me to work with. Astrology could give you a choice of 12 different symbols to interpret, from a number of different countries of origin; but then if I chose one of them, which do I choose- or which selection? None of these appealed to me so I instead went with a block which would represent the astrological chart with all 12 signs,or points.
I thought I would do a 12-pointed star, but couldn’t find a pattern for one (is there such a thing? I found 6-pointed stars, 8-pointed stars etc) So I turned to the block which is my favourite of all quilt blocks- the New York Beauty block. I drew up some foundation paper with 4 identical blocks, each with 2 full points and 2 half points.
Foundation piecing is ideal for making nice sharp, accurate points and I love the contrast between a lighter background and bright coloured fabric points.
I cut the outer piece out of the same neutral background fabric and made the centre from a mottled gold.
After each of the 4 corner blocks were made, they were then joined together to make the complete star.
I placed the star block on some natural linen which I have been using for most of my fabric pages for this journal; sewing it down by machine with a raw-edge.
I then hand-quilted around each star point,
and did concentric circles in the middle with matching thread.
I found this theme tricky to start with, but am happy with the final result- love those sharp little points!